No Thanks, No Party Lights
by blackloislane
Summary: Dick brings Kory, Rachel and Gar to Wayne manor for Christmas. Two-parter. Note: I fixed the issue with the text so it should be good to go if you were interested in reading this.
1. Chapter 1

**Part One**

The snow in Gotham isn't the clean, sparkly kind known to Hallmark movies and Holiday cards. It's wet, slushy and gray with the filth of the city seeped in. It'll look more like it should the closer they get to Wayne Manor, which is maybe the one thing Dick looks forward to.

He never thought he'd set foot there again, let alone for Christmas with his intergalactic girlfriend and two superpowered teenaged wards. But things have changed, he's changed. He knows now that outrunning his past isn't sustainable. And maybe the distance he's kept for so long has given the wounds time to close.

He hits the last stoplight before the bridge to Midtown just in time for a homeless schizophrenic's garbled street corner rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," and he thinks for not the first time this trip that he should have taken Bruce up on his offer to send the jet. But Kory seems to be enjoying herself at least. She claps for the man when he finishes, and cracks the passenger side window to let him come fetch a crisp 100 dollar bill. Dick thought she would have been rid of that habit by now, especially after getting her memory back, but she seems to have as little comprehension of human money as always. Or more likely it just doesn't matter all that much to her.

"I think I'm going to like it in Gotham," she says, giving the grateful man a quick wave before the light changes green and Dick steps off of the brake.

"Nobody likes it in Gotham," Dick says. "This town is a poison running through the veins of everyone cursed enough to set foot here."

"My God do you ever lighten up? Like at all?" Rachel says tiredly from the backseat. He thought she'd still be out like a light along with Gar.

"She's got a point," Kory says, and of course she would think that about him. Kory is the definition of light. She's currently wearing a crown of blinking Christmas lights on top of her long red hair, and a crop sweater decorated like a present, a huge red bow in front. She paired it with her favorite metallic purple mini skirt and thigh high sweater knit socks. She won't fit into Bruce Wayne's world of finely tailored everything, Dick accepts that and he's sure that Kory never cared in the first place.

He's no stranger to the odd and outlandish, he's a former circus performer who dresses up in a costume and fights bad guys in his day to day. But none of that ever seems to completely negate the seriousness that has been ground into him over the years. Whenever Kory makes him laugh, which is often, he never lets it go on for too long or too loud. But he's getting better, brighter. He can feel it, and he hopes that she can too.

And yet, things have been quiet for most of the drive. He knows why. It's because the night before she told him that she loved him for the first time. They were tangled up in the sheets together after sex, his head resting on her breasts, her shiny pink nails scratching his sweaty hair. In that moment, and in several moments before that, he knew that he loved her. There was no doubt in his frequently troubled mind. And yet when she said the words herself, simple as anything with no warning or preamble, the part of him that might have had the emotional courage to say it back slipped right out of his grasp. The only thing he was still left holding onto was fear, because how was love even supposed to work for someone like him?

He was never as far removed from his issues as he wanted to be, never as comfortable. The threat that he could easily become what he once was constantly weighed on him, and he felt it more than ever when she said those words. It was like she'd given him a beautiful gift he had no idea what to do with, an expensive crystal vase that looked entirely out of place in the shithole apartment that was his psyche. So he stayed quiet, he said nothing. A thank you would have been better.

Unfortunately, before that clusterfuck of his own making, he'd already made the decision to let them meet Bruce. And when Kory greeted him this morning dressed in that sweater, with her overnight bag packed, he knew there was no getting out of it.

After over another hour of driving in silence, they finally reach the outskirts of uptown Gotham. It's only a matter of time now before he sees his guardian again, and his thick gray scarf feels tighter around his neck somehow.

"Are we almost there? Holy shit am I really about to meet Batman?" Gar cries excitedly from the backseat. Dick nearly flinches, he hadn't even heard the boy stir or yawn.

"You're going to meet Bruce Wayne," Dick says. "Try to remember that, please."

"Still really, _really_ cool, do you think he'll let me drive one of his Ferraris? I have a learner's permit."

"You do not have a learner's permit," Rachel says between letting out a heavy yawn.

"But I can pretend to have one, like I just did. Expertly, I might add."

"Dinner tonight, presents in the morning, then home, that's what we decided," Dick says.

He glances at his rearview mirror just in time to see Gar roll his eyes and slump a bit in his seat.

"And Nightwing has once again thwarted his true arch nemesis, fun," The boy says.

After driving the rest of the way in silence, they pull in through the gates of Wayne Manor right on schedule. He'd been wary about driving through Gotham but the trip had gone smoothly, no shootouts or surprise attacks from Joker's goons to ruin their Christmas before it could start. And yet, the dread only now begins settling in for Dick as he looks at the staggering mansion blanketed in sections with moon white snow.

It's been too long since he's seen Bruce and no matter how many times he goes over it in his head, he can't find the right words to say to him, especially since Jason won't be there. Bruce won't be ready to talk about why, he may never be ready. It's been months since Jason died, but that isn't the sort of thing a person just gets over, especially not Bruce.

Somewhere deep inside, Dick knows that he may not have accepted the invitation had Jason survived. He would have stayed away and looked for a million more reasons to hold onto his resentment, not so much toward Bruce anymore, but toward the past that he hoped to overcome fully before letting such a big part of it into his present. He likes his life now. He likes the kids in the backseat, and the beautiful woman in the dumb sweater. He wants to like it for a little bit longer before dealing with all of this. And yet he parks the car anyway, and steps out.

He takes Kory's hand before they get to the big wooden front door. She doesn't let go, but she does look over at him.

"So we're still doing this?" she says it that snarky tone he's come to love. He'd hoped she wouldn't bring the messiness from last night up in front of Rachel and Gar, but he knew her well enough to understand why she would. Nothing was secret between any of them anymore.

"Nothing has changed Kory," Dick says quietly. He wants to add that he didn't mean to leave her heartfelt words hanging in the air like that, but then he'd have to try to say them back and then almost certainly choke on them.

"Yeah," Kory says coldly, even as his hand remains in hers. "That's the problem."

She knocks on the door before he can say another word, and He swallows hard.

"Please tell me you guys aren't fighting," Raven says. "That would be so annoying."

"She means sad," Gar says.

"No, I mean annoying."

"Quiet, both of you," Kory says, and as always, they listen.

Dick expects Alfred to get the door, it's the one comfort he takes in being here again, the fact that the steady old man's face is the first one visitors always see. But instead it's his second favorite redhead standing in the doorway.

Barbara Gordon. Batgirl. Babs. He hasn't seen her since before he left Gotham, over two years ago. She looks the same, except for maybe a few extra freckles and slightly shorter hair.

"Babs, you're… hi." Dick says.

"I am not, never touched a drug in my life." She jokes. "Bring it in stranger."

So he goes to hug her, as awkwardly as a person can manage, because the situation itself couldn't be more awkward. He and Babs were friends once, maybe nearly as close as him and Donna, and he left her like he left everyone, only to show up two years later with an entirely new family.

He isn't worried about Babs liking Kory, all women like Kory. He can't get through the first couple of minutes of any conversation with Donna without her bringing up his relationship in that delighted voice. And Rachel and Gar are kids, Babs loves kids. At the moment, the only person he's worried about her hating is him.

"Who do we have here?" Babs says.

"Kory," she says, offering a hug that Babs clearly wasn't expecting. She returns it anyway and looks over Kory's shoulder to raise her eyebrows playfully at Dick."I'm Dick's—

"Girlfriend," Dick says, cutting her off, because if Kory had introduced herself as his friend he may have cried.

"That's the accepted term," Kory says. "So who are you? A cousin? An ex?"

"No, not my ex," Dick answers too quickly. This is exactly the situation to make him forget his well-honed cool. "So, you guys want a tour or something? Alfred!"

"Alfred's cooking," Babs says. "But I can take your coats and show you guys around, I didn't get your names by the way."

"I'm Garfield, but everyone calls me Gar," The boy says. "Also this place is awesome. Do you live here? Because I'm officially jealous. You should see our apartment, it's like a crack house compared to this."

"No I don't live here, and did you say 'our apartment' as in all four of you?" She asks, gesturing across the group.

"A lot's happened in two years Babs," Dick says.

"Heh, I would say so."

As much as Dick doesn't want to leave Kory, Rachel and Gar alone with Babs, he wants to be there to witness the mutual interrogation even less. So he lets the four of them go it alone while he goes to the kitchen to catch up with Alfred, the one man in Gotham he's managed to keep in semi-touch with. He looks the same too, maybe even a little younger than he remembers. And the kitchen smells as good as it ever did.

When he finally manages the will to ask where Bruce is, Dick is unsurprised to learn that he's in the cave again, probably contemplating a Christmas without Jason and the sheer mindfuck of Dick's presence after so long. They'll see each other soon, but for now the relief sets in. He has a little more time.

"Master Bruce has had a… pensive holiday this year, to say the least." Alfred says. "He's down there more than anywhere else."

"Do you think I should go, do you think he'd want me to?"

"You and I both know the answer to that."

It's no. It's no because this needs to be on Bruce's terms, just like everything always does. He feels something familiar rise within him, the climbing heat of his anger. He's better at spotting it now. He breathes in and out and tries to remind himself that he'd just been relieved that Bruce wasn't there to meet him, that neither of them had handled anything well, and maybe they never point is to try, and if that means letting The Batman breathe, that's what he'll have to do.

He doesn't want to talk to Bruce yet. He wants to talk to Kory. Before last night she'd been the steadiest thing he had to hold onto, now he can feel her floating away and he needs to fix it before he can fix anything else.

"I'm going to find Kory," he says. Alfred knows about her from their talks, he doesn't know that she isn't human, but he knows pretty much everything else. He approves, he'd probably approve even if he did know just how far up she fell from.

"Bring her here, bring them all. We'll have hot chocolate and I'll tell them every embarrassing story about you I know," Alfred says.

"One of them has psychic powers, won't be necessary." He says before stepping out of the kitchen.

He finds her in the big checkered hallway on the other side, almost as if she was waiting for him there.

"You ditched the tour?" he says.

She shrugs, "I got bored, nobody needs to know the gritty origin story of the Wayne Family crown moulding. Babs seems nice though."

"She is."

"Nice girl, bad tour guide."

He smiles at her and steps a little closer to put his hands on her waist, not certain if she wants them to be there.

"I'm sorry," he says, pulling her closer and touching his forehead to hers. "I'm sorry I ruined it."

She snakes her arms around his neck, an act of forgiveness and affection for him that she can never really switch off.

"You didn't ruin it. I didn't tell you I loved you so you'd have to say it back. I was just hoping you'd say, I don't know, anything, or at least pretend to be asleep to spare my feelings."

"I thought of that," he says, and cracks a small, teasing smile, only to take it back once he realizes how highly unamused she is.

"I just wanted to know how you felt about it, that's all" she says. He tries to put himself back into the mindset of last night, how warm and safe and comfortable he felt in her arms. He'd stayed inside of her for a few minutes after they'd finished, soft and spent, he needed that extra closeness and she needed it too. In fact she always needed it. She was so distant from everything she could really call her own, except for him, and the kids she loved more than anything. He knew that and yet when she told him how she really felt, he couldn't say it back. He can't even say it right now.

"I felt…"

honesty, it has to be honesty, even if it hurts.

"I felt scared."

"Scared of what?

Once again he doesn't answer, he touches her face instead, and brings her in for a long kiss that she thankfully doesn't break. He can't find the words, but he can do this, he can show her. He does love her, there's nothing else that this feeling can mean. But if he says it, will she even believe it after everything? It's better just to kiss her, and put his arms around her, and…

"This sweater is ridiculous," he says, his voice a husky groan as he breaks away. His strong hand creeping up under the soft knit. "I want it off, now."

"Right here in the hallway?" she says. "Don't you have like an old Butler or something wandering around?"

"My bedroom."

"But Rach and Gar."

"They'll be fine, Babs is the world's greatest tour guide remember?"

She giggles and he remembers how much he loves that sound, he has to be fast, Wayne Manor is huge and getting her to his old room will take a second. They make their way up the stairs and down the hall together, stealing kisses and touches every so often. This is bad, he knows it is. It's been too long to really still call it his home, and yet he needs this, just something to take away some of the angst of being in this huge place that can feel lonely even when it's brimming with voices. And yes, part of it is about at least temporarily fixing things with Kory. Fucking his problems away has always been a reliable go to. He needs this to think straight again, to face Bruce, to enjoy the delicious quail Alfred is making for them. He needs this so it can be Christmas.

"This your old room?" She says as they get inside the door and he shuts it.

"Mm hmm," he answers, brushing her hair to the side and attacking her neck with kisses from behind.

"Did he change it?" She asks. He stops for a moment to look around.

"No, why?"

"It looks like a fancy hotel room, there's no _you_ in here. It was yours until college right? Where are the Star Wars sheets and New Kids On The Block posters?"

"Who did you think I _was_ in high school?"

She crosses her arms and gives him a challenging look. "I don't know. I can count on one hand the things I know about you before you met me. I didn't even know Babs was a thing."

"Babs isn't a thing, she's a friend."

"Who I've never met."

He moves in on her again, kissing away her questions. "Can we please talk about this later?"

"Yes, but I'm still mad at you."

"I know." He kisses her again, and picks her up to get her to the bed faster. She likes to be on top, and he loves her being on top, but he wants to stay like this for a while, with her body pressed between him and the cushy bed, he wants her to feel his weight. If she can feel it then maybe she'll know for sure that no matter how much of a mess he is, he isn't going to leave her, not ever.

At first, he stopped running because of a sense of duty, a moral code he needed if he was ever going to be his own hero. Now he stays because he can't imagine being away from them, from her. He remembers the last time he ran away, to sort himself out on Donna's couch. He couldn't stop thinking about them even then. It's easier now that he stays, it's easier just to keep them.

After he gets her out of her sweater, then loses the rest of their clothes aside from her knitted socks, he's already more okay than he was just a minute ago. Sounds don't really carry in this house, he isn't self conscious about being loud, about letting it all out. He's been twisted up into a knot of unsaid feelings since last night, and he needs to unravel with her. No matter what he keeps inside, it has to be enough for now to know that she's his, and he's hers, and that won't ever change.

They're both strong as hell with crazy stamina, they can last for hours sometimes if they want to, but right now it needs to be quick. He remembers the right places to touch her, the ones that make her tremble and sigh. He knows how to move his hips to get just the right friction going on her most sensitive spot. They've done this so many times, in so many different places and situations and positions. Getting her to come is basically muscle memory at this point, but it feels deeper than that, like a connection that existed long before a year ago. It's an all-consuming need to give her everything that he has. It's love, and his stupid ass still can't say it out loud.

They finish together in that same shivering, breathless heap they've been in so many times before. And she laughs, because she sometimes can't help herself afterward. He presses his face against her neck to make her laugh more. It's going to be okay now, he knows it is.

They get their clothes back on nearly as quickly as they'd gotten them off, and they situate their hair as much as they can. He feels looser, calmer now, even though their conflict isn't quite over yet.

"Do you think anyone heard?" Kory says as they exit his room into the hallway.

"_And on your left, we have a man who is in big trouble."_

At the sound of Babs' voice behind them, he jerks around quickly. The three of them all have the same smirk on their faces, like they absolutely know what just went down in his old bedroom. Maybe they'd been up here long enough to hear something incriminating after all, maybe they notice his shirt is unbuttoned when it wasn't before, maybe they're not fucking idiots.

"Hey," Gar says. "You guys made up!"

This was going to be the longest Christmas ever.

By the way, I am aware that Barbara Gordon is a disabled character. I'm not erasing that like the comic unfortunately did. In this story it hasn't happened yet (although if I use her again in a related story I may explore that). I'm not entirely sure of the timeline of Barbara's injury, but I feel like it happened when she was in her mid to late 20s.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two**

Dick doesn't tend to feel embarrassment. He's never been wired that way. It's part of the necessary confidence of being a costumed vigilante. But ever since coming back here it seems to be his primary emotion. To top it off, he found a way to make it worse on himself like the masochist he so often is. Standing in the hallway right now, with those three sets of eyes looking his way, he realizes that fucking his girlfriend within the first fifteen minutes of his long delayed visit was less than a wise decision, and also that he'd probably make the same one if he could go back.

Gar looks ready to explode with laughter, Rachel looks like she wants to disappear into the floor, Babs crosses her arms and taps her short fingernails against her bicep.

"Dick, a moment?" Babs says. She doesn't wait for his response before she walks up to take him by the sleeve. "There's Cocoa downstairs," she announces behind her to the rest of them. Dick gives Kory a silent apology before Babs takes him further down the hallway and out of earshot.

"Wow," Babs says.

"This doesn't have to be a big deal," He says, he can hear the defensive edge in his own voice. But he can't explain himself any other way.

"I mean, it's not a big deal, it's just, you really wasted no time."

What must she be thinking right now? It can be any number of things. He hasn't been normal since he stepped into the door, he's barely been normal for 2 years, not to mention the 14 before that. Babs has always had her own way of navigating his sometimes elusive personality, she was usually the quickest of anyone to take it in stride, but it's been too long. Things have stacked up that need to be dealt with, and what more appropriate time to start is there?

"I'm sorry," he says. "I know what I'm supposed to be here for."

"You don't have to apologize, not for that anyway."

"I'm sorry for all of it, for disappearing."

The corners of her lips turn up a bit, "I don't blame you for disappearing, I get why you left this life behind, or at least I thought I did."

"What does that mean?"

She looks down quickly at her feet, then again at him, and combs a tuft of red hair behind her ear. He was telling the truth when he said she wasn't an ex, but there had been times over the years that they'd sort of danced around each other, before he left Gotham without a trace. Babs wasn't the type to hold onto things like that, romance was always pretty low on her priorities list, still, it was naïve to think she'd be 100 percent cool with him now, especially after this.

"I thought you left because you wanted something more normal. And now you show up with two adopted teens with superpowers and a girlfriend from space, what exactly is normal about any of this?"

He looks at her frantically, grasping for her meaning. To know that Rachel and Gar had powers was one thing. It was a difference they carried that most people aware of the reality of powers could figure out. But nobody knew where Kory came from but them and Donna, nobody was meant to know. The easiest way to keep her safe was to keep it to as few people as possible.

"What do you know about Kory?" he says.

She lets go of a breath, already a mini confession, and gives him an apologetic look. "Bruce did some digging after Jason told him about the people you had in his safe house."

"What?" he says, the anger starting to flame again. Of course the crazy bastard would start a file on them. Batman hated not knowing as much as he could about everything and everyone. He'd even worked out a way to beat every member of the Justice League should any of them go rogue, and while Dick had always thought that was smart, it also highlighted just how little Bruce trusted anyone. Did he find a way to "beat" Kory too? Or Rachel and Gar?

"I'm sorry I have somewhere to be," Dick says through clenched teeth before launching himself down the hall.

Getting to the Bat Cave was always sort of a convoluted process, involving lots of secret doors and special codes, and Dick wasn't certain that the same method to it existed after two years, but he had to try. As mad as he was, he could have damn near clawed his way in. Luckily, the security measures had gone unchanged, all the way down to the old statue with the keypad beneath it. Or maybe luckily was the wrong word, maybe Bruce had some twisted reason for wanting him down there after all.

"Bruce!" He yells, creating a formidable echo in his old mentor's base of operations. "I know you're down here!"

Dick starts down the catwalk that hovers above the expanse of the cave, until he gets to the wall of screens on the other side. There Bruce sits, thankfully not in the Batsuit.

"Bruce?" Dick repeats before looking where the older man is looking. On all of the screens is the same picture, Jason, the kid who replaced him only to meet his far too early death at the hands of the Joker. The clown must have been the one to have taken the picture. In the shot, the boy's mouth is gagged, he's tied up, there are tears in his eyes and bruises on his face, and he's looking at the camera like he's pleading for help.

Dick barely knew Jason, but he knew that he deserved better than the end of the Joker's crowbar. And the sight of the kid's bruised and helpless face multiplied over dozens of screens is enough to form a lump in his throat. Why does Bruce do this? Why does he drown himself in his own pain every chance he gets? Dick came down to confront him about Kory and the others, and he plans to when his anger returns, but for now, he only feels pity.

"Come upstairs Bruce," Dick says, almost demands. "I came here to see you, the least you can do is come upstairs."

Bruce turns his head to look at him. It's the first time they've looked at each other in so long, and Dick feels like he has nothing to say and everything to say at once.

"I didn't think you'd show," Bruce says.

"I didn't think I would either."

Bruce stands up, and Dick hopes for a fleeting moment that he'll turn the screens off, but he leaves them on as he goes to meet Dick.

"You're taller than I remember," Bruce says.

Dick nearly groans in frustration, but bites it back. "No I'm not. I haven't grown and you don't forget things."

"Just making conversation."

"Does that mean you're coming?"

Bruce glances for a moment at the crisp Armani blazer draped over the back of his chair and goes to pick it up, a yes. Finally a yes.

Dinner is mostly quiet, but not the awkward sort of quiet Dick was expecting. It's more the deep, thoughtful kind, as if they're all just taking each other in again. But he notices the way Bruce looks at Kory, and it makes it hard to stay in the headspace of wanting to catch up. Rachel and Gar are at least partially human, but Kory is something else, and with that comes inherent suspicion. Dick wants to fight about it, to defend her, but he also wants Bruce to stay upstairs, in the moment with all of them. He wants him to heal.

After dinner, everyone gathers in the living room around the tree. Gar immediately goes to talk to Bruce, presumably to ask him about the Ferraris, and Rachel sits with Alfred and Babs, enjoying another hot chocolate with extra chili powder, her favorite.

He watches them all while Kory sits in his lap. He wants her there in spite of the commotion earlier, things are better when she's close, and it's not like there are any secrets between them all now.

"You're so quiet," she says. "You're not hiding something are you? Because I thought we were past that."

He smiles up at her before preparing to stand, trusting that she'll follow. He takes her hand then to lead her out to the balcony. If he'd taken her anywhere within the house they'd automatically assume the worst, but also, out there is the best place to look at the snow coming down, pure white against the night sky.

"I'm glad you're here," he says when they get outside. "And there's something I should probably tell you—

"Bruce knows I'm an alien," she says, cutting him off.

"How did you know that?"

"Rachel got it off of Babs, you know, the half demon way."

He pulls her closer, a reassurance. She's so warm against him on the freezing cold balcony, he wants to sink all the way into her. "I'm going to talk to him."

"Leave it," she says. "You already told me all about your hyper paranoid adoptive father who's also the world's greatest detective. Do you think a part of me didn't see this coming?"

"He invaded your privacy."

"No, actually he invaded yours, I'm just a part of it. Besides, maybe it's a good thing it's all on the table, maybe this is a first step to getting to know each other again. That's what you wanted right?"

"Yes but…"

"If you want to tell him off you know I'm in your corner. But if it were up to me I'd rather just have a nice Holiday now and deal with all of the family drama later. I have actual superpowers. I don't need you to protect me from Batman."

"I feel a little roasted by that statement."

"You were meant to," She laughs at him and goes to kiss him. His lips, nearly numb from the cold, start to melt under hers and he twists his fingers into her sweater, wanting desperately to take it off again but knowing that he can't. Tonight, when it's time for everyone to go to sleep, he's going to do it again, slower this time, as slow as they can possibly stand. He wants to have her forever and he'll start with all night long.

"What, still trying to get me out of my ridiculous sweater?" she says, pulling away. "Have you learned nothing?"

He laughs, a little louder and longer than usual, then he fixes his eyes on her as hard as he can, taking her in. He remembers the first time he ever saw her, how much brighter she seemed than anything else in his world. He knew from the beginning that he wanted to take her against the closest available surface, but he didn't know the rest, that he'd end up needing her and wanting her at the same time, in a way that only got stronger the more time passed.

"You look fucking adorable," he says. He kisses her again, even harder this time, hard enough to hurt in that good way. And he pulls away, not knowing what he's going to say until he does.

"And I love you."

As soon as the words come, he forgets why it was ever so hard in the first place. It feels like the most normal, natural thing in the world, and yet she lights up brighter than the crown on her candy colored hair. She takes his face in her hands and kisses his breath away.

"Thank you," she says with a smile.

He deserves that.

They go back inside before Dick freezes to death, and for the first time since he arrived here, it feels the way Christmas is supposed to feel. Gar and Rachel come up to them, both brimming with something to say.

"Bruce says I can drive his Ferrari tomorrow morning if I keep it in the driveway and stay under 30 miles an hour, please don't ruin this for me Dick, just say yes and I promise I'll never ask for another thing."

"We both know that isn't true, but sure," Dick says.

"Awesome!" Gar says, pumping his fist once.

"And Alfred gave me his cocoa recipe," Rachel says. "We're so stopping to buy some muscovado sugar and Aleppo pepper on the way home, just a head's up, this could get expensive."

"Not to worry, I'll send you home with some of both," Alfred says from his position in front of the tree.

"You're the real hero Alfred, never forget it," Rachel says with a casual wink.

They talk between themselves for a while longer, until Commisioner Gordon calls Babs up to tell her he's done with the holiday shift and she takes her leave to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with her dad. Dick hugs her goodbye and promises not to be a stranger this time.

Throughout the night Dick repeatedly looks at Bruce, at the sadness in the man's eyes until at some point he can't help going up to him. Kory doesn't want to make this into a thing, and he won't let it come to that, but something needs to be said, if only so Bruce can know exactly where they all stand.

"I know what you know, about Kory, that she came from somewhere else. And I know how you know it."

"It wasn't personal, I've always gone after intel on anyone with significant abilities."

"It's personal to me. She forgives you, which means I forgive you, but if you want me to be a part of your life again, you can't just do whatever you want when it comes to me and the people I love. I don't belong to you anymore, not like that."

The light from the fireplace flickers over Bruce's handsome, weary face, and the older man sips his brandy before opening his mouth to speak again. "I can't make any promises, but you're here, and I want to do what I can to make us good again Dick, as good as we can be."

"I want that too, and for that to happen you have to know how I feel about her," Dick looks over the room at Kory, standing by the tree, looking as beautifully wrapped as the rest of the gifts. "She's my family now too."

"Well that can only be a positive. If I know one thing it's the value of family, I respect it."

"I know you do, after what happened with Jason…"

He doesn't finish the sentence, he can tell by the look on Bruce's face that there is nothing good or helpful to attach to the end of it. Jason is dead, and it will never be okay. Dick reaches out a hand to Bruce's shoulder.

"Merry Christmas Bruce."

"Merry Christmas Dick."

When the night is over, Rachel and Gar go to their guest rooms to sleep, Alfred heads to his quarters, and Bruce goes back to his cave like Dick feared he would. But it means something that he came up for a while, had a brandy, promised Gar some time behind the wheel, and spent Christmas with them the best he could. He'll never be as good at being Bruce Wayne as he is at being Batman, it's something Dick has always accepted. If Bruce forgives himself for Jason one day, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that they'll fight side by side again, just once or twice for old time sake.

But tonight, the only thing that interests him is keeping the silent promise he made to himself, to get her naked again the second they shut themselves into his room. And he takes his time now. He uses his mouth and his fingers in whatever places she needs to make those sounds that he loves, and he rejoices in her touching him back, she's just so good at it, always knowing where to linger, for how hard and for how long.

She was right about his room, there was never any of him in it, but with her on his bed, open and loving and willing as ever, he feels like he belongs here. She climbs onto his lap and takes him all the way in, and he holds her as they start to move together. She tells him how good he feels inside, the hitch in her breath tells him she means it, but he knows he can make it even better. Without warning, he attaches his mouth to her nipple, making her shiver and cry out softly.

"Say it again," she says, her voice rocking and shaking along with the rest of her.

He removes his mouth from her breast, and stares up at her face, his beautiful Koriand'r, his Tamaranean princess, "I love you Kory," he says, even easier than the first time.

"I love you, too," and she kisses him deep, and they continue into the night as the snow drifts past the windows.

The next morning, or at least what Dick thinks is the next morning even though it's still dark out, he wakes up to her straddling his lap and staring down at him. She's still naked aside from her panties, her thigh high socks, and that blinking light crown in her hair. He checks the bedside clock, it's five in the morning.

"Merry Christmas," she says.

"Baby, it's five AM."

"I know, I wanted to wake you up sooner but you just looked so peaceful," she combs his bangs out of his eyes with her fingers. "But Bruce is loaded and Alfred seems like he has impeccable taste in gifts, so needless to say I'm highkey excited about opening some of those big ass boxes down there."

He chuckles and scratches his forehead before putting both hands on her hips.

"Come here," he says.

And she bends at the waist to collide her full, soft lips against his, to let him run his hands up and down her smooth back and tangle his fingers in her long hair.

"We should get down there," she says, sitting back up.

"I'm sure everyone's still asleep."

And with perfect timing, there's a knock on the heavy door, and not a gentle one. It's fast like several fists are hitting the solid oak at once.

"Dick!" Rachel says from the hallway, her voice even louder than their too loud for 5 am knocking.

"Dick, wake up" Gar chimes in. "Get up, time for rich guy presents, and Kory I know you're in there too, come on guys."

"Well, that answers that question," Dick says. "I guess now's as good a time as any."

They climb out of bed then, one more reluctantly than the other, and prepare to start their day. Maybe they can stay for a while after presents, Gar has to take his test drive after all, and whatever Alfred's making for breakfast has to be worth it. Besides, the snow is perfect around Wayne Manor, and the best revenge on Kory, Rachel and Gar for waking him up at the ass crack of dawn is the most brutal snowball assault they've ever known. He can hardly wait.


End file.
